PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr CALDWELL (Fadden—Opposition Chief Whip) (12:06): I move: That this House: (1) notes the: (a) Government is reducing housing supply in the midst of a housing supply crisis; (b) Government's higher taxes will lead to 35,000 fewer homes, higher rents, and less housing investment; (c) Government's higher taxes add to the cost of housing, with existing taxes, fees and charges already adding up to 50 per cent to the cost of a new home; and (d) Government is already more than 100,000 dwellings behind its own 1.2 million housing target and is projected to miss the target by well over 200,000 dwellings; and (2) calls on the Government to axe these higher taxes immediately, that are a sledgehammer on the economy.

Labor talks a big game on housing, but they repeatedly fail to deliver. What this motion speaks to today is what was described as an 'ambitious'—but I would say 'delusional'—target by those opposite to deliver 1.2 million homes over five years. We're only a couple of years into that five-year period, and what have we seen?

The Labor government is almost 100,000 dwellings behind their own housing target and projected to miss the target by about 200,000. Sadly, you can't solve a housing crisis by making housing more expensive, which is exactly the process that this Labor government is undertaking. Sadly, the great Australian dream is turning into a nightmare under this Labor government.

The recent budget that was handed down by the Treasurer some 48 days ago gives a bit of a pointer on where this government is constantly going wrong in relation to housing supply. Treasury has provided some very helpful commentary in the budget papers. On page 158 it gives away the game here, which is that all of these new higher taxes that they're proposing on property will actually lead to 35,000 fewer homes.

That's right. This Labor government could have done nothing on tax—left it as it was—and, in fact, that deficit of 35,000 homes would be immediately erased. These higher taxes add to the cost of housing, with existing taxes, fees and charges already adding up to 50 per cent of the cost of a new home.

Every extra tax makes projects less viable. Less investment will mean we see fewer homes getting built. It shows up in the price of a new home.

It shows up in the rent a family pays each week. If your own Treasury says your policy means fewer homes, why on earth would you have gone ahead with it? Labor says, time and time again, that housing is a priority, but its policies are making matters worse.

A big piece of the puzzle as to what's happened over the last four years of this Labor government is that we have seen them fail to address the two parts of housing that have led to this crisis: supply and demand. The Prime Minister has said repeatedly that they are throwing everything they can at supply. Newsflash—that's not working.

The second part of housing is in relation to demand. What we've seen is Labor overseeing record migration. Under Labor, Australia has already taken in about 1.4 million people—equivalent to the population of Adelaide—far more people than homes have been built for.

We know that, on their current trajectory, that's scheduled to hit about two million. It's pretty simple mathematics that you should not bring in more people to this country than you can house. Australians deserve better than that.

We know that, if you look at the maths on this, the annual migration rate has stalled above 300,000 per year and the annual rate of housing completions is stuck at about 170,000 per year. You can see that this has created a housing supply shortage of around 400,000 people since Labor came to office. This is a problem that, sadly, this Labor government just simply won't address.

I want to touch on something that I noticed in the Gold Coast Bulletin last Friday. It was an article that was headed: 'Building collapses up by 10 per cent. Industry hit by rising costs.' The other part of this equation is that the economic conditions that have been created by this Labor government simply do not support a working property development sector.

So the coalition has already announced three points in a very simple plan, and there'll be more to come. First, link housing to migration. Second, cut unnecessary red tape.

We've seen the National Construction Code blow out to more than 2,300 pages. Finally, we've announced a $5 billion housing-enabling infrastructure fund. These are just three simple things that the coalition say would make a difference to housing and fixing this housing crisis that's been created under this Labor government.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Fernando ): Is there a seconder for this motion? Mr Katter: I'll second the motion and reserve my right to speak.